Diane is on a cooking blitz and I am happy for her (particularly for me!) Last evening she still had tomato sauce that she had made the night before and I asked her to turn it into a puttanesca by adding some chopped capers, black olives and some chili flakes. We had bought a small carton of olives on special because there were none left except that one but if you read the label they were Genoese small olives much like the small olives from southern France. They were delicious and now we wish that the store, Woolies, would continue stocking them but I think that is a slim hope.
We used the same brand of Italian penne which we both thought was the best pasta that we’ve tasted. I know that sounds strange but with this pasta you can tell the difference from the other pastas that we buy.
The sauce was fairly liquid so it lent itself to being paired with the penne because the sauce was able to penetrate into the pasta as it is supposed to.
Diane sauteed some eggplant rounds then cut them into dices and added them to the sauce. She measures the dry pasta and gives us about 80 grams each which makes a very filling amount for our main course. On cue the mandatory salad followed as a palate cleanser.
Our beverage of choice was a Coonawarra Taster’s Choice Cabernet Sauvignon, inexpensive but a perfect match for the food.
Tim's Tucker 